As a hunter we are always buying new gear, accessing new hunting land, studying maping, putting in food plots etc. etc. to try and maximize our opportunity to harvest deer. Some on here have many many years of hunting experience, while others like myself have only been bow hunting for 6 or so years. The learning curve is steep so the less experienced probably make more adjustments year over year than the more seasoned or perhaps not because they don't know what adjustments to make. My question is (finally) what are some of the key adjustments you've made in your life as a hunter that have helped you meet your goals? 1. The first/best thing I did as a deer hunter was to learn about food plotting & land management. Putting in food plots made me a better hunter but it didn't really help me kill big bucks. Food plots allowed me to see more deer on stand so I could observe interactions between deer and different patterns. I also learned about pressure and how I could over hunt a stand relatively easy. Food plots definitely increased deer encounters and provided me a lot of observations that helped me make future adjustments. 2. That leads me to my next adjustments - I use to take the shortest or less stressful path to my treestand possible. Whatever got me in the treestand quickly was best. I learned quickly after bumping deer that I was going to need to plan my entry and exit routes before actually putting my stand in a tree. I have walked creek beds, taken paddle boats, walked train tracks and more over the last several years to try to minimize pressure and eliminate bumping deer. I've worked with my much more experienced hunting buddy on improving this as him utilizing better entry exit routes has an effect on my outcomes - he was definitely receptive to my planning and thought I put into what seems like such a simple detail of the hunt. 3. Which leads me to trying to eliminate hunting pressure all together. Sure I learned to hunt the wind, I learned to try and be scent free among other things. The best thing I've done to avoid pressure is not hunt a stand/area all together until November. I stopped hunting my best stands in October in hopes a whitetail would simply make an early season mistake and decided to wait to hunt those stands when the bucks mind wasn't as concerned with my presence. Note: my rebuttal to this was always I just want to hunt as much as I can whenever I can. I pretty much kept doing that just hunted stands that I wasn't as proud of. The result was increased sightings at all stands. I'm always looking to improve my odds and the members of this site always provide good insight/perspective when a question like this is posed!
I'm no expert but I've seen more deer doing the following... 1. Do my scouting and stand maintenance right after season goes out and otherwise try to stay out of the woods except to freshen a lick every now and then. If I'm going to scout during season I'll do it on my way back to the truck and try to keep it minimal. 2. Don't hunt a stand when the wind is wrong. It's tempting especially when all I've been thinking about all week is hunting that "one stand" but if the wind is bad I know I'll do more harm than good.
1. Parker 70 hit it out of the park with #2 above and you will hear all the seasoned hunters on here stress it. It's a very hard to do especially when you have a limited number of sits per season and the wind just won't cooperate. I will sometimes hunt an iffy wind but NEVER a dead wrong wind. 2. I think another one is learning how to sit still and be quiet. So many guys move around and make too much noise. Deer can see that from a mile away. I noticed more deer sightings when I learned how to "pan" slowly with and w/o my binos and just be a statue. 3. Another one already said was entry and exit. Make a halfway cleared path to your stand. Not so it's very noticeable but you don't want to be breaking a stick with every step. Your entry should be from downwind. Wait to exit until it's dark if you have deer nearby. 4. Stand placement... I used to find hot sign and throw a stand up right on top of it. I still experienced some success but I started following my uncles advice and backing up, looking at the bigger picture and then finding an ideal setup. Looking at the lines in between the sign. I've still got A LOT to learn but those are a few things that boosted my success. This is a good topic, I'm interested to see others replies. Thanks for posting Just a few things that increased my sightings. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Scent control and paying attention to crop cycles. I started seeing a lot more deer once I began practicing good scent control (especially hunting thermals) and I started killing a lot more deer once I stopped hunting last years' travel patterns and started hunting 2 seasons ago travel patterns...based on the crop cycles.
I purposely hunted a particular stand twice last year on the absolute wrong wind. I had a sneaking suspicion deer were not traveling the way I thought they were and wanted to see how it would go. Both times I had deer (does and young bucks) within bow range. On my 3rd sit of the year in that stand (on the "right" wind) I passed a 160" 10 point at 12 yards. Rule #1 - When it comes to bowhunting there are no hard and fast rules. Just a series of guidelines that we've made up that we believe will help us be more successful.
Yea, toward the end of the season when we are staring at our un punched tags it makes us question our so-strict strategies that we like to preach and take a few risks....guilty as charged Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Unfortunately I have video evidence and a matched set of sheds to back it up. Figuring 18" inside spread he scores a tick under 163". Just a three year old - he needed another year. Hoping to chase him this fall when he's a bonafide giant.
Justin snatched defeat from the jaws of victory... but mad props for having the patience and discipline! Back on topic: one lesson (of many) that I took away from least season is to not get too wrapped up in your trail cams during the season. For me, it led to hunting one particular buck, rather than branching out and upping my odds. And of course I ate tag soup. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My main thing this year is hunting travel paths & oak patches. Ive only been bow hunting for 5yrs & am still learning. Ive always hunted over feeders. But this year I'm gonna change that. I'm gonna hunt the travel paths I've found & oak patches. My biggest deer ive ever seen got by me on a rub line that I found. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
I switched from Paperback to a Kindle to reduce movement and noise while sitting for hours with no deer in sight.
The biggest thing I have learned is that just because you don't have a big buck on camera doesn't mean he isn't there. I watched an old buck from 100 yards away head in the direction of one of my cameras and swerve right around its area. I probably didn't do a good job keeping it hidden but never the less I never got a picture of that deer but I saw him three times on hoof last year.
Biggest thing I have done is: Never stop asking why, and seek the answer. Why are the deer moving as they are? Bedding where they are? Eating what they are? Acting like they are? Reacting like they are? Never ending...
This is what keeps me so dumb. Just when I think I'm starting to figure it out... Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
